Control of the Laws in the Ancient Democracy at Athens

The power of the court to overturn a law or decree is known as judicial review, and it was developed in the ancient democracy at Athens more than two thousand years ago. In his book "Control of the Laws in the Ancient Democracy at Athens," Edwin Carawan reassesses the evidence to construct a new model of how Athenians made law and how the courts controlled that process. He argues that text-based constitutionalism was not as compelling as the ethos of the community and that the judicial review process changed over time, with reforms to expedite the process and revive the more rigorous safeguards.

Format: Hardback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 15 December 2020
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

The power of the court to overturn a law or decree—called judicial review—is a critical feature of modern democracies. Contemporary American judges, for example, determine what is consistent with the Constitution, though this practice is often criticized for giving unelected officials the power to strike down laws enacted by the people's representatives. This principle was actually developed more than two thousand years ago in the ancient democracy at Athens. In Control of the Laws in the Ancient Democracy at Athens, Edwin Carawan reassesses the accumulated evidence to construct a new model of how Athenians made law in the time of Plato and Aristotle, while examining how the courts controlled that process.

Athenian juries, Carawan explains, were manned by many hundreds of ordinary citizens rather than a judicial elite. Nonetheless, in the 1890s, American apologists found vindication for judicial review in the ancient precedent. They believed that Athenian judges decided the fate of laws and decrees legalistically, focusing on fundamental text, because the speeches that survive from antiquity often involve close scrutiny of statutes attributed to lawgivers such as Solon, much as a modern appellate judge might resort to the wording of the Framers. Carawan argues that inscriptions, speeches, and fragments of lost histories make clear that text-based constitutionalism was not so compelling as the ethos of the community.

Carawan explores how the judicial review process changed over time. From the restoration of democracy down to its last decades, the Athenians made significant reforms in their method of legislation, first to expedite a cumbersome process, then to revive the moribund.

This book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the ancient world and the development of legal institutions. It provides a fresh perspective on an important aspect of modern democracy and sheds light on the complex relationship between law, politics, and society in ancient Athens.

Weight: 572g
Dimension: 161 x 236 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781421439495